Newcastle’s Ward Hadaway has picked up Pinsent Curtis Biddle’s Leeds head of property litigation Alan Herbert to lead its contentious property litigation practice.

Herbert has been a partner in Pinsents’ Leeds arm since 1996 and had led the firm’s 10-lawyer Yorkshire team. He left Pinsents last week and will start at Ward Hadaway at the end of the month as its sole partner-level property litigator.